E458 


.2 


.W24 


■■■-.■--: :h 







O^ 








N o 









^V^^ 













0' vl: 




.•s^^ 



t^.0^ 





''oV 




















O , * e , 1 * A" 



4 o 











<. 




^"^ ^i::^. ^^ 




^^ cy -'^fe"- '^ A^ *c(^ 




^;^5?^^ A 



%^*--\^" 



.>^^^'^ 

-v ^ 




• % ^^ ^- 












w 



.1 



J 



AN APPEAL^dr THE UNION, 

BY 

LATE SENATOR OF THE UNITED STATES, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, 
GOV. OF KANSAS, &c., &c. 



LETTER FIRST. 

Washington City, June 28, 1862. 

Whilst our great rebellion attracts the attention of the world, with us it is a question 
of existence. Oar armies, eventually, must triumph, but then remains the difficult 
task of restoring, throughout the revolted States, the supremacy of the Constitution. 
We must not only continue to maintain the just distinction between the loyal and dis- 
loyal, the deluded masses and the rebel leaders, but we must also remember, that the 
reign of terror has long been supreme in the South, and that thousands have been 
forced into apparent support of the rebellion, by threats, by spoliation, by military force 
or conscription, and not a few, driven out as mendicants, by the ruin of their homes, and 
the loss of their means of subsistence. 

With the exception of South Carolina, whose normal condition for more than thirty 
years before she struck down our flag at Sumter, would seem to have been that of in- 
cipient treason and revolt, no other State really desired to destroy the Union. A secret 
association and active armed conspiracy in the South, aided by traitor leaders, North 
and South, and an organized system of falsehood and misrepresentation, drove the 
masses, by sudden action, violence, and terror, into this rebellion. And yet, under all 
these circumstances, the aggregate popular vote of the South exhibited a large majority 
against secession. 

Nor should we forget, that it was a Northern President, yielding to secession leaders, 
in opposition to the patriots of the South, who, by the whole power of Executive influ- 
ence and patronage, attempted to force slavery into Kansas, by the crime, heretofore 
without a name or an example, the forgery of a Constitution. This was the tolling of 
the first bell, alarming to patriots, but the concerted signal for the grand movement of 
the assasins, then conspiring the death of the Union. We should also remember, that, 
although a Northern President urged the Lecompton forgery upon Congress, thus mainly 
contributing to the downfall of the Union, yet, when the vote was taken in the fall of 
1860, a majority of the popular suffrage of the South was given to those candidates for 
the Presidency who had denounced and opposed this measure, over the candidate, (now 
in the traitor army,^ who gave it his support. Thus, on this, as on every other occa- 
sion, where the people of the South have not been overborne by violence and terror, 
they have rejected at the polls the action of the secession leaders. 

But the disaster was precipitated, when, the same President, rejecting the advice of 
the patriotic Scott, refused to reinforce our forts, when menaced or beleagured by trai- 
tors, and announced, in his messages, to our country and all the world, the secession 
heresy, fatal to all government, that we had no right to repel force by force, on the part 
of a State seeking, by ai'med secession, to destroy the Union. In other words, that we, 
uader such circumstances, would be the traitors, and the South the defenders of the 



r~ ^ -I i^ \ n^ - ' y 

M''- ^ .■.^/^*. 

Constitution. It was then that the absurd political paradox was announced by the 
President, that a State has no right to secede, but that the Government has no right to 
prevent its secession. It was this wretched dogma, that paralyzed our energies when 
they were most needed, gave immunity to treason, and invited rebellion, rendered our 
stocks unsaleable, and induced thousands, at home and abroad, to believe that the Fed- 
eral Government was an unreal pliantom, which existed in name only. 

Who does not know, that it' Andrew Jackson, a Southern man, had then been Presi- 
dent, the rebellion would have been crushed by him in embryo, as it was in 1833, and 
all the blood and treasure, now expended, would have been saved to our country and 
mankind. 

Surely, it is some palliation of the course of the deluded masses of the South, that 
they heard such pernicious counsels, and from such a source. 

If, as our army advances, there has not been an open, general return of the masses 
to the Union, we must recollect, that when we did occupy parts of the South, and then 
withdrew, how soon the resurging tide of the rebellion swept over the devoted region, 
what scenes of horror and desolation ensued, how the homes of those who had welcomed 
our Hag were given to the flames, whilst death was the portion of others. But let us 
crush out the very embers of this rebellion, drive out to other lands the rebel leaders, 
give to the ruinecl and deluded masses ample assurance of permanent protection, an^ 
they will resume their allegiance to the Union. As to those brave and devoted patrio 
at the South, who, throughout the secession frenzy, maintained, at the risk of life an( 
fortune, the cause of the Union, the resolve of the Government to protect and cherisi 
them is manifest. 

As a linal result, we should not desire to hold the Southern States as provinces, fo; 
that would fatally exasperate, and tend to perpetuate the contest, increase our expenses 
destroy our wealth and revenue, render our taxes intolerable, and endanger our free 
institutions. When the rebellion is crushed, we should seek a real pacification, th( 
close of the war and its expenses, a cordial restoration of the Union, and return of thai 
fraternal feeling, which mai'ked the first half century of our wonderful progress, enabling 
us, witli one fourth of our present population, to defy the world in arms. To ensure thest 
great results, the policy of the Government must he^firtn, clear, unwavering, and marked 
by discriminating justice and perfect candor. The country is in imminent peril, and 
nothing but the truth will avail us. The North and Soitt/i i7iust understand each other. 
The Soutli must know, that we realize the evident truth, that slavery caused the rebellion. 
Efforts were made on other questions to shake the Union, but all had proved impotent 
in the past, as they must in the future, until we were divided by slavery, the only issue 
competent to produce a great rebellion. Nor will angry denunciations of the discordant ele- 
ments of slavery and abolition now save us, for still the fact recurs, that without slavery 
tliere would have been no abi lition, and, consequently, no secession. Slavery, there- 
fore was the cause, the causa causans, and whilst we should use all wise and constitu- 
tional means to secure its gradual disappearance, yet we should act justly, remembering 
how, when, and under what Hag slavery was forced upon the protesting and opposing 
South, then feeble colonies of England. And yet, for nearly thirty years past, England 
has constantly agitated this question here, with a view to dissolve ©ur Union, and has 
thus been mainly instrumental in sowing here the seeds of discord, which fructified in 
the rebellion. 

And then, when the tide of battle seemed adverse, England, giving her whole moral 
aid to the rebellion, demanded from us restitution and apology in the case of the Trent, 
for an act, which had received the repeated sanction of her own example. Her press 
then teemed with atrocious falsehoods, insulting threats, and exulting annunciations of 
our downfall. Her imperious demand was accompanied by fleets and armies, her can- 
non thundered on our coast, and she becamefthe moral ally of that very slavery which 
she had forced upon the Soiith, but which, for nearly thirty years past, she made the 
theme of fierce denunciation of our country, and constant agitation here, with one ever- 
present purpose, the destruction of this UnioH. And now let not England suppose, that 
tiiere is an American, who does not feel the insult, and understand the motive. England 
beheld, in our wonderful progress, the oceans' scepter slipping from her grasp, 
our grain and cotton almost feeding and clothing the world, our augmenting skill and 
capital, our inventive genius, and ever-improving machinery, our educated, intelligent, 
untaxed labor, the marvelous increase of our revenue, tonnage, and manufactures, and 
our stupendous internal communications, natural and artificial, by land and water. The 
last census exhibited to her, our numbers increasing in a ratio, making the mere addition, 
in the next twenty-five venv-j, equal to her whole population, and our wealth augment- 
ing in a far greater proportion. She saw our mines and mountains of coal and iron> 
("her own great element of progress,^ exceed hers nearly a hundred fold, our hydraulic 



power, in a single State, greater than that of Great Britain ; a single American 
river, witli its tributaries, long enough to encircle the globe, and that England might be 
anchored as an island in our inland seas. She witnessed Connecticut, smaller than 
many English counties, and with but one-sixth the population of some of them, appro- 
priating more money for education in that State, than the British Parliament for the 
whole realm ; that we had more heads at work among our 'laboring classes than all 
Euroye, and she realized the great truth, that knowledge ia power, reposing on common 
schools for the whole people. She measured our continental area, laved by two oceans, 
as also by the lakes and the gulf, with a more genial sun, and a soil far more fertile 
and productive than that of England, and nearly thirty times greater in extent. She 
saw us raise within the loyal states a I'oluiitecr army of three-fourths of a million, with- 
out a conscript, the largest, and far the most intelligent and effective force in the world, 
and millions more ready, whenever called, to rush to the defense of the Union, whilst 
a great and gallant navy, rose as if by enchantment from the ocean. She marked the 
rapid transfer of the command of the commerce of the world, from London to New York, 
She observed the transcendent success of our free institutions, and with that "fear of 
change perplexing monarchs," she realized the approaching crash of thrones and dynas- 
ties, under the moral inlluence and advancing march of our republican empire. To in- 
sure our permanent division, was to destroy us. Hence, she encouraged the South, ac- 
knowledged her as a belligerent, welcomed the rebel flag and war vessels into her ports, 
protected them there, enabled them to elude our cruisers, and prepared to aid and sus- 
tain slavery. For a time, with the exception of Cobden, and the immortal John Bright, 
we seemed to have had scarcely an influential friend in England. Her masses favored 
ns, but four -fifths of them are excluded from the polls by restricted suffrage. For a 
time, king cotton never had more loyal 'Subjects, than those who the.i controlled the press 
and government of England. Our Union was to be severed, the Southern Confederacy 
acknowledged, the blockade broken, free trade between the South and England established, 
cotton given her, and refused us ; we were to be forever cut otf from the gulf and the 
lower Mississippi ; Portland, fthe star of the East, j was to become a British city, and 
Maine, always loyal and patriotic, was to be wrested from us, and re-annexed to the 
British crown. It was the carnival of despots, exulting over our anticipated ruin, in our 
death struggle in the great cause of human liberty and human progress. 

And yet it was England that forced slavery upon the South against its earnest pro- 
test, and colonial acts vetoed by the British crown. Then, during our colonial weakness 
and dependence, the kings and queens, and parliaments of England, not only legalized and 
encouraged the African slave trade, but gave charters and monopolies for the wretched 
traffic. Then the lords and noble ladies, the blood royal, the merchant princes, and even 
the mitered prelates of England, engaged most extensively in this accursed counnerce, 
and thousands of the rich and noble of England enjoy now, by inlieritance, fortunes thus 
accumulated. British vessels, sailing from British ports, openly displayed there upon 
their decks the shackles that were to bind the victims, thousands of whom, in the hor- 
rors of the middle passage, found unshrouded in an ocean grave, a happy escape from suf- 
ferings and misery indescribable. It was to these, our then infant, feeble, and depend- 
ent, but protesting, colonies of the South, most of these slaves were forced by British 
avarice, and royal vetoes on colonial acts of the South prohibiting the traffic. Most justly 
then did Mr. Jefferson, in the original of our Declaration of Independence, announce the 
terrible truth as follows : 

" He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights 
of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating 
and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in 
their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobium of infidel powers, 
is the warfare of the christian king of Great Britain. Determined to keep open a mar- 
ket where men should be bought and sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppress- 
ing every legislative attempt to prohibit or restrain this execrable commerce. And that 
this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting 
those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he 
has deprived them, by murdering the people on whom he also obtruded them : thus 
paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes 
whicli he urges them to commit against the lives of another." 

The flag of England was then the flag of slavery, and not of slavery only, but of the 
African slave trade ; and wherever slavery now exists, England may look upon it and 
say, this is the work of my hands, mine was the price of blood, and mine all the an- 
guish and despair of centuries of bondage. 

This war, then, is mainly the work of England. She forced slavery here, and then 
commenced and inflamed here the anti-slavery agitation, assailing the Constitution and 



tlie Union, arresting the progress of manumission in the border States, and linally cul- 
minating in the rebellion. Here then in the South are slavery and rebellion, branches 
of that Upas tree, whose seeds were planted in our soil by England. 

England, then, should never have reproached us with slavery. The work was hers, 
and hers may yet be the dread retribution of avenging justice. Had the contest she 
provoked in the Trent affair then happened, the result might have been very different 
from her expectations. Instead of a ruined country, and divided Union, and God save 
the King played under the cross of St. George in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, 
she might have heard the music of Yankee Doodle, Hail Columbia, and the Star Span- 
gled Banner, on the heights of Quebec, re-echoed in fraternal chorus over the Union 
intended by God, under one government, of the valley of the lakes and the St. Lawrence. 
Looking nearer home, she might have beheld that banner, whose stars she would have 
extinguished in blood, Heating triumphantly, in union with the Shamrock, over that 
glorious Emerald Isle, whose generous heart beats with love of the Amei'ican Union, and 
whose blood, now as ever heretofore, is poured out in copious libations in its defense. 
Indeed, but for the forbearance of our government, and the judgment and good sense of 
Lord Lyons, the conflict was inevitable. 

The hope was expressed by me in England that " those glorious isles would become 
the breakwater of liberty, against which the surges of European despotism would dash 
in vain." This was her true policy, justice to Ireland, successive reforms in her sys- 
tem, a further wise extension of the suffrage, with the vote by ballot, a cordial moral 
alliance with her kindred race in America, and a full participation, mutually beneficial, 
in our ever enlarging commerce. But her oligarchy has chosen coalition with the South 
and slaveiy, and war upon our Union and the republican principle. Divide and conquer 
is their motto, suicide will be their epitai^h. 

I have stated that the South must know what course we intend to pursue in regard to 
slavery. But not only the South, but our friends and enemies, and all the ivorld mast 
also know, that the American Union shall never be dismembered. It is the great cita- 
del of self government, entrusted to our charge by Providence, and we will defend it 
against all assailants until our last man has fallen. The lakes can never be sej^arated 
from the Gulf, nor the Eastern from the Western ocean. As the sun high advanced 
in the heavens, illumes our flag on the Atlantic, its first morning beams shall salute our 
kindred banner stars on the shores of the Pacific, the present western limit of this great 
republic. Already the telegraphic lightning flashes intelligence from ocean to ocean, 
and soon the iron horse, starting fronfi the Atlantic on his continental tour, shall herald 
his own advent on the shores of the Pacific. The lakes of the North are united by rail- 
roads and canals with the Atlantic, the Gulf, the Ohio, and Mississippi, and our iron gun- 
boats, bearing aloft in war and in peace the emblems of our country's glory, are soon to 
perform their great circuit from the Potomac, the Chesapeake, the SQSci[uehanna, the 
Delaware, and the Hudson, to the Lakes and the Mississippi. Above all, the valley of 
the Mississippi was ordained by God as the residence of a united people. Over every 
acre of its soil must forever float the banner of the Union, and all its waters, as they roll 
on to"-ether to the Gulf, proclaim, that what "God has joined together, man shall never 
put asunder." No line of latitude or longitude shall ever separate the mouth from the 
center or soiirces of the Mississippi. No, all the waters of the imperial river, from their 
mountain springs and chrystal fountains, shall ever flow in commingling currents to the 
Gulf, uniting evermore in one undivided whole, the blessed homes of a free and happy 
people. The Ohio and Missouri, the Red river and the Arkansas, shall never be dis- 
severed from the Mississippi. Pittsburg and Louisville, Cincinnati and St. Louis, shall 
never be Separated from New Orleans, or mark the capitals of dissevered and discordant 
States. That glorious free trade between all the States, ("the great cause of our marvel- 
ous progress, 3 shall in time, notwithstanding the present suicidal folly of England, go 
on in its circuit among accordant peoples throughout the globe, the precursor of that era 
of universal and unrestricted commerce, whose scepter is peace, and whose reign the 
fusion and fraternity of nations, as foretold by the holy prophets in the Scriptures of 
Truth. 

This great valley, one mighty plain, without an intervening mountain, contains, 
west of the Mississippi, seven States and Territories of an area sufficient for thirteen 
more of the size of New York. East of the Mississippi, it emliraces all the remaining 
States except New England, New Jersey, Delaware, .'^outh Carolina, and Florida. New 
York is connected with the great valley by the Alleghany river ; and Maryland by the 
Castleman's river and the Youghiogany, and Alabama, North Carolina, and Georgia by 
the Tennessee and its tributaries. One-half the area of Pennsylvania and Virginia is 
within its limits. Michigan is united with it by the Wisconsin river, and Texas by the 
Red river whilst Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, W'ieconsin. Illinois, Tennessee, and 



Mississippi, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Louisiana, and Arkansas own almost 
exclusively its sway. 

And M'ho will dare erect the feeble barriers designed to seclude the great valley and 
its products from either ocean, the Lakes, or the Gulf, or persuade her to hold these es- 
sential rights and interests, by the wretched tenure of the will of any seceding State ? 
No line bat one of blood, of military despotisms, and perpetual war, can ever separate 
this great valley. The idea is sacrilege. It is the raving of a maniac. Separation is 
death. Disunion is suicide. If the South presents the issue that the Union or slavery 
must perish, tlie result is not doubtful. The Union wil> still live. It is written on 
the scroll of destiny, by the finger of God, that "neither principalities nor powers" 
shall etfect its overthrow, nor shall " the gates of Hell prevail against it." 

Nor will we ever surrender the grave of Washington. There, upon the Potomac, on 
whose banks he was born and died, the flag of the Union must iloatover his sacred sep- 
ulcher, until the dead shall be summoned from their graves, by the trump of the resur- 
rection. 

The 4th of July, 1776, when our name was first inscribed upon the roll of nations, 
shall be forever commemorated under one flag, and as the birth-day of one undivided 
Union. The memorable declaration of American Independence, the articles of confed- 
eration, the Constitution of the United States, all subscribed upon that consecrated 
ground at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, shall ever mark the noble commonwealth 
of Pennsylvania, as the keystone of the arch of a perpetual and unbroken Union. 

Nor shall any but the same banner be unfolded over the graves of the patriots and 
statesmen of the Revolution, or the battle-fields of the mighty conflict. 

And oh ! around the graves of Washington and Jackson, and in memory of their sol- 
emn farewell appeals in favor of the Union, how could Virginia or Tennessee ever have 
been disloyal ? No, they were not disloyal, but were torn, by rebel fraud and violence, 
from that banner, round which they will again rejoice to rally. 

We must not despair of the Republic. All is not lost. The Union yet lives. Its 
restoration approaches. The calm will soon follow the storm. The golden sunlight 
and the silver edging of the azure clouds will be seen again in the horizon. The bow of 
promise will appear in the heavens, to mark the retiring of the bitter waters, proclaim- 
ing from on high, that now, henceforth, and forever, no second secession deluge shall 
ever disturb the onward, united, and peaceful march of the Republic. 

Having stated the course of England on the slavery question and the rebellion, gladly 
woiild i rest here ; but, as a Northern man, by parentage, birth, and education, always 
devoted to the Union, twice elected by Mississippi to the Senate of the United States, 
as the ardent opponent of nullification and secession, and, upon that very question, hav- 
ing announced in my first address, of January, 1833, the right of the Government, by 
" coercion,^'' if necessary, to suppress rebellion or secession by any State, truth and jus- 
tice compel me to say, that we of the North, next to England, are responsible for the 
introduction of slavery into the South. LTpon a much smaller scale than England, but, 
under her flag, which was then ours, and the force of colonial tradition, we followed the 
wretched example of England, and Northern vessels, sailing from Northern ports, and 
owned by Northern merchants, brought back to our shores from Africa their living 
cargoes. 

These slaves, in but small numbers, were brought from their tropical African homes 
to the colder North, where their labor was unprofitable, but to the Sov^th, and against 
their earnest protest, forced upon them. It was not the Soutli that engaged in the Af- 
rican slave trade. It was not the South that brought slavery into America. No, it 
was forced upon the South, against their protest, mainly by England, but partly, also, 
by the North. Believing, as 1 do, that this war was produced by slavery, we should 
still remember by whom the slaves were imported here. If, as I have ever believed, 
and distinctly averred over my own signature, in my Texas letter of the 8th January, 
1844, frepublished in the Daily Globe of 3d February, 1844, J when a Senator from Mis- 
sissippi, that slavery, by wise, just, gradual, and constitutional means, should be ex- 
tinguished, it should not be in blood, nor withont colonization, nor by sudden action, 
accompanied, as all such action would be, by scenes of ruin, death, snd desolation. 

Nor should we forget, how zealously, from first to last, Virginia, Maryland, and Dela- 
ware, in framing the Federal Constitution, sustained by Washington, Franklin, and 
Hamilton, and by NeM^ York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, opposjed the continuance, 
for a day, of the African slave-trade, and how they were overborne, by the unfortunate 
' coalition of the Eastern States with Georgia and the Carolinas, legalizing the execrable 
traffic for twenty years, and how fearfully the predictions of those great prophet states- 
men, George Mason, of Virginia, and Luther Alartin, of Maryland, have been fulfilled, 
that this fatal measure, by the force of its moral influence iu favor of slavery, aoid by 



the rapid importation of negroes here, would menace the peace and safety of the Union. 

As the North, next to England, was mainly responsible for forcing slavery upon the j , ) 
South, honor demands that the whole nation, as an act of justice, and as a measure 
that would greatly exalt the character of the country, should bear any loss that may 
arise from a change of system by any State. Indeed, under all the circumstances, the 
nation cannot afford to leave all the sacrifice, and all the glory of such an achievement, 
to the South only. It will be a grand historical fact in the progress of humanity, and 
must adorn the annals of the nation. Especially, let it never be said, that we of the 
North first aided in forcing slavery upon the South, and then, by one sudden act, extin- 
guished it in blood and the total ruin of our country. Whilst the census and other 
statistics show, that one-sixtli of the free blacks of the North are supported at the pab- 
lic expense, ("see tables of my Texas letter, _) and whilst the North is closing her doors 
more and more every day against the further introduction of negroes, if the slaves are to 
be manumitted, their number being four millions, it can only be gradually, by succes- 
sive State action, aided by Congress, and colonization abroad, so as to remove this dis- 
cordant element, and ultimately leave our country, as free and happy homes, for the 
white race only. 

It is vain to deny the prejudice in the North against the negro race, c&nstantly in- 
creasing as the numbers multiply, accompanied by the stern refusal of social or 
political equality with the negro, and the serious apprehension among their working 
classes of the degredation of labor by negro association, and the reduction of wages to 
a few cents a day by negro competition, all demonstrating, as a question of interest, as well 
as of humanity, that it is best for them, as for us, that the sex>aration, though neces- 
sarily gradual, must be complete and eternal. 

Wherever the vote of the people of any State of the North has been taken on this 
question, it has been uniformly for the exclusion of the free negro race. In the midst 
of the excitement of the slavery question in Kansas, when the republicans acted alone 
upon the question of the adoption of their celebrated Topeka constitution, they sub- 
mitted the free negro question to a distinct vote of the people, who, by an overwhelm- 
ing majority, voted for their exclusion. The recent similar overwhelming vote, to the 
same effect, of the people of Illinois, is another clear test of the present sentiment of 
the nation. That sentiment is this, that the negro, although to be regarded as a man, 
and treated with humanity, belongs, as they believe, to an inferior race, communion or 
association with whom is not desired by the whites. Those who regard the slavery 
question as the only, or the princii^al difficulty, are greatly mistaken. The neym ques- 
tion is far deeper. It is not slavery, as a mere political institution, that is sustained in 
the South, but the greater question of the intermingling and equality of races. In this 
aspect, it is far more a question of race than of slavery. If, as among the Greeks and 
Romans, the white race were enslaved here, the institution would instantly disappear. 
Among the many millions of the population of the South, less than a tenth are slave- 
holders. Why then is it, that the non-slave-holding masses there support the institu- 
tion? It is the instinct, the sentiment, the prejudice, if you please, of race, almost < / 
universal and unalterable. It is the fear that if the slaves of the South were emanci- 
pated, the non-slave-holding whites would be sunk down to their level. But let the 
non-slave-holders of the South know, that colonization abroad would certainly ac- 
company gradual emancipation, and they would support the ilieasure. They do not 
wish the Africans among them, but if that must be the case, then they desire them to 
remain as slaves, and not to be raised to their own condition, as freemen, to degrade 
labor, and reduce its wages, as they believe. Having made numerous oral addresses to 
the people of Mississippi on this question, and discussed the whole subject in this very 
nx/ierf, as their Senator, in my published letter of the 8th of January, 1844, I speak 
advisedly of the sentiment of the people of that State at that time on this subject. Abo- 
lition alone, touches then merely the surface of this question. It lies far deeper, in the 
antagonism of race, and the laws of nature. Abolition then, now, as ever heretofore, 
only aggravates the evil. The true remedy is separation and colonization abroad, of 
course preceded by gradual emancipation. Under this banner we can settle this ques- 
tion, and save the Union, whereas immediate and unconditional emancipation involves 
the destruction of the Union, and the ruin of the whole country. Disastrous as this 
would be to the white race. North and South, to the blacks it would be death by starva- 
tion or the sword, and never ending war between the North and the South. Coloniza- 
tion, then, voluntary, but effective, is tlie only remedy for the terrible evil of slavery, 
and the only basis of the peaceful and permanent restoration of the Union. 

Should the slaves be thus gradually manumitted and colonized, with their consent, 
abroad, and the North be thereafter reproached with aiding to force slavery upon the 
South, we could thou truly say that we had finally freely united with the South in ex- 



pending our treasure to remove the evil. The offense of our forefathers would then be 
gloriously redeemed by the justice and generosity of their children, and matle instru- 

'Mjental in carrying commerce, civilization, and Cliristianity to the benighted regions of 
Africa. Nor should the colonization be confined to Africa, but extended to "Mexico, 
Central, and Southern America, ' ' as proposed in my Texas letter, and to the Weat Indies, 
or such other homes as might be preferred by the negro race. 

1 am (juite sure there is no abolitionist who has a more sincere regard for the real wel- 
fare of this dependent race than myself, or who would make greater saerilices to promote 
their interests. In 1838 I emancipated, by deed of gift, all my own slaves, and aided iu 
the support of several of them, to the extent of my limited means, in their new homes. 
From my youth upwards, at all times, and under all circumstances, whether residing 
North or South, whether in public or iu private life, I have ever supported gradual 
emancipation, accompanied by colonization, as the only remedy for the evil of slavery. 
In my letter, published at its date, over my signature, of tiie 8th January, 1844, before 
•- ^referred to, being then a senator from Mississippi, I expressed the following opinions on 
this great question : 

M Again the question is asked, is slavery never to disappear from the Union ? This is 
* a startling and momentous question, but the answer is easy and the proof is clear — it 

■' loill certain!. ji disappear if Texas is re-annexeel to the. Union, not by abolition, but in sjiite 
'of all its frenzy, slowly and gradually, by diffusion, as it has thus nearly receded from 
' several of the more northern of the slave-holding States, and as it will continue more 
'rapidly to recede by the re-annexation of Texas, into Mexico and Central and Sou'liern 
'America. Providence * * * thus will open Texas as a safety valve, 

'into and through which slavery will slowly and gradually recede, and finally disappear 
' into the boundless regions of Mexico, and Central and Southern America. Beyond the 
' Del Norte slavery loHl not pass ; not only because it is forbidden by law, but because 
"' the colored races there preponderate in the ratio of ten to one over the whites, and 
'holding as they do the governmeiit and most of the offices in their own possession, they 
' will never permit the enslavement of any portion of the colored race, which makes and 
' executes the laws of the country. In Bradford's Atlas the facts are given as fol- 

' '' lows : 

"Mexico, area 1,690,000 square miles; population eight millions, one-sixth white, 
' and all the rest Indians, Africans, Mulattoes, Zainbos, and other colored races. Cen- 
' tral America, area 18ij,000 square miles ; population nearly two millions, one-sixth 
'' white, and the rest Negroes, Zambos, and other colored races. South America, area 
'G, 500, 000 square miles ; population fourteen millions, one million white, four millions 
' Indians, and the remainder, being nine millions, blacks and other colored races. The 
' outlet for our negro race through this vast region can never be opened but by thfe re- 
' annexation of Texas ; but, in that event, therein that extensive country, bordering 
' on our negro population, and four times greater in area than the whole Union, with a 
' sparse population of but three to the square mile, where nine-tenths of the people are 
'of the colored races, there upon that fertile soil, and in that delicious climate so admi- 
'' rably adapted to the negro race, as all experience has now clearly shown, the free 
' black would find a home. There also as the slaves in the lapse of time, from the dens- 
' ity of population and other causes are emancipated, they will disappear from time to 
' time west of the Del Norte, and beyond the limits of the Union, and among a race of 
''their own color will ,be diffused through this vast region, whtn-e they will not be a de- 
' (jraded caste, and whe^'e as to climate, and social and moral condition, and all the hopes 
' and comforts of life, they can occupy amid equals a position they can never attain in 
_' any part of this Union." 

This, it is true, was a slow process, but it was peaceful, progressive, and certain, es- 
pecially when Texas should have been checkered by railroads, and her system connected 
with that of the South and with Mexico. I desired then, however, to accelerate this action, 
by making it a part of the compact of Texas with the Federal Government, that the pro- 
ceeds of the sales of her public lands, exceeding two hundred rnllions of acres, should 
be devoted in aid of the colonization described in this extract. The principle, how- 
ever, was adopted of State action by irrevocable compact with the Federal Government, 
by which, provision therein was made for abolishing slavery In all such States north of 
a certain parallel of latitude, Cembracing a territory larger than New England, ) as might 
be thereafter admitted by subdivision of the State of Texas. The power of action on 
this subject, by compact of a State with the General Government was then clearly estab- 
*Hshed, in perfect accordance with repeated previous acts of Congress then cited by me. 
The doctrine rests upon the elemental principle of the combined authority of the nation, 
and a State, acting by compact within its limits, and will be fully discussed by me be- 
foi'« the close of these letters. 



8 

It is stated in this letter of January 8th, 1844, that "beyond the Del Norte slavery 
will not pass," and this prediction is fully realized. 

Whilst I would not confine negro colonization to "Mexico, Central and Southern 
America," yet the facility and economy of th-^ process there would be very great, and no 
objection would be interposed by the p<;ople of any of those countries. The statements 
of my letter are true, that, there, the "free blacks and emancipated slaves" "would 
find a home," '^ udmirubli/ ailapted tn the negro ?-«ce, " among a people ^^ of their own 
color,'''' and "where thev will not be a degraded caste,'" and " where they can occupy, 
amid equals, a position they can never attain in any part of this country." Even where 
emigration to some of the Northern States is not yet prohiliited, nor exclusion from the 
right of suffrage ordained, yet the social ban is complete, not only as to marriage, but 
they hold no offices in the North, neitlier do they serve upon juries, nor in the militia, 
nor do they mingle witli the wliites in society, nor in the churches, schools, or colleges. 
Surely, then, it is not for their benefit that it is desired to retain them here, where, as 
the tables show, one-sixth of their number, in the North, are supported at the public 
expense. 

It being clearly our interest and duty to adopt this system of gradual emancipation 
by State authority, with colonization abroad, aided by Congress, and the expense being 
comparatively small, less than a few months' cost of the war, it is a signal mark of that 
special Providence, which has so often shielded our beloved country from imminent 
peril, that the President of the United States should have recommended, and Congress 
should have adopted, by so large a majority, this vera system, which alone can finally, 
justly, and wisely, settle this question, cordially reunite the North with the South, re- 
naove the cause of the war, and save the country. 

In a former letter, published over my signature, of the 30th September, 1856, called, 
like this, " As Appeal for the Union," I said : " / hai^e never bflieved in a piaceablc dis- 
solution of the Union. * * No, it will he tear, civil WAK, of all others the most san- 
guinary and ferocious. * * It icill he marked * * by froivning fortresses, by opposing 
batteries, by gleaming sabers, by bristling bayonets, by the tramp of contending armies, by 
totons and cities sacked and pillaged, by dwellings given to the flames, and fields laid waste 
and desolate. It loill be a second fall of mankind, and while we shall be performing here, the 
bloody drama of a Natio7i' s suicide, from THB thrones op Europe toill arise the exulting 
shouts of despots, and upon their gloomy banners shall be inscribed, as they believe never to 
be effaced, their motto, Man is incapable of Self-government." Alluding to the subject 
of the present discussion, I then, also, said: " / see, too, what, in this probable crisis of 
my country'' s destiny, it is my duty again to repeat from my Texas letter. * * The Af- 
rican RACE, gradually disappearing from otir borders, passing, in part, out of our limits to 
Mexico, and Central and Southern America, and in part returning to the shores of their an- 
cestors, there, it is hoped, to carry Christianity, civilization, and freedom, throughout the be- 
nighted regions of the sons of Ham." My views, then, of 1844, were thus distinctly reit- 
erated in 1856, in favor of the gradual extinction of slavery, accompanied by colonization. 

I shall continue, in subsequent numbers, the discussion of this great question, involv- 
ing the destiny of our country, and of mankind, demonstrating, by the census, and 
other statistics, the fatal effects of slavery upon our whole country, and especially the 
border States of the South, arresting their progress in wealth, population, power, and 
intellectual development, and showing how clearly it is, not only their interest, but 
their duty, as patriots, to accept the overture of national aid, so magnanimously prof- 
fered by the President and Congress. If the boi-der States of the South will adopt this 
policy, they can terminate the war and re-establish a cordial and fraternal Union. By 
refusing, they will embitter an*d prolong the contest, accumulate expenditures and taxes, 
and subject the Union to imminent peril. 

R. J. WALKER. 



KB 9.3. 

?1 



H. Polkinhorn, printer, Washiugton City. 













0^ -^ *.,,.■ ^^ 








"1 '^'^y.r.^ 



^^ ^^ ^^P: 









^"^^ 






• '^^ A^ »v 






»' 



.0 






^^-V^, V 






.«•' 



..< 






















^ " ST. AUGUSTINE 4* • S^^^ < 'd- •<<» 

^ J. -^^SS^ FLA. «^ 







•^ n'^ 



^^'- ^' 



